The young boy's plight is "an exceptional situation that to my mind has lasted too long," said Pierre Henry, head of France-Terre d'Asile, a leading association helping migrants.

"The place of a child is not in a holding zone," he said, adding that while he understood officials' desire to make sure the child wasn't the victim of trafficking, a judge could have kept him somewhere else.

"His place is not there," he said.

The boy, who has not been publicly identified, landed at the airport on March 21 with a cousin's passport on a trip to join relatives, according to the aid group Voix de l'enfant.

The regional administration Thursday confirmed the boy's presence in the waiting zone but would not comment further.